Abeyta Keeping Close Eye on Season

When April Abeyta looks back on her senior season with the Chapman women’s basketball team, she’ll have more than just a few newspaper clippings to bring back memories.

Abeyta, a film and television major, is making a documentary of the Panthers’ season for a senior project. The 6-foot center, who is the sixth-leading rebounder in the nation in NCAA Division III (13.5 per game), has been toting a hand-held video camera to practices, games, inside the dorms and anywhere else the team congregates.

“It has been great so far,” Abeyta said. “In the past I’ve done little things here and there with a camera, like I’ll do highlight tape for the team at the end of the season, but this is much more in depth.”

Abeyta’s instructor on the project is a big basketball fan, so getting his approval wasn’t a problem, she said. Her teammates have also been accommodating, particularly freshman Jennifer Inmon, junior Polly Neves and senior Michelle McMillen, who are the primary subjects of the documentary.

“I think they get a little tired sometimes,” said Abeyta, who graduated from Mira Loma High in Sacramento. “But I’m going to save some stuff just for the team, like the little goofy things other people wouldn’t know about.”

Abeyta’s most prized footage came during the Redlands tournament in November. The team was performing its ritual of jumping and slapping the top of the door leading out of the locker room. Neves didn’t notice the window pane above the door and she put her hand through the glass, opening a cut that required stitches.

“I wasn’t happy that happened,” Abeyta said. “But I got a great expression on her face . . . and all the blood.”

Abeyta has until the end of the semester to film and edit the project. Once it’s complete, a screening will take place on campus for her classmates and teammates.

“A lot of people in the major do fictional films,” Abeyta said. “They find a producer and they make a short movie. It’s a different type of work. With a movie there’s extreme stress for about three or four days straight. This is a little different.”

HOLE IN THE MIDDLE

UC Irvine basketball coach Pat Douglass was half right before Big West Conference play began.

“We’re much stronger and have more depth at center,” Douglass said in a conference call last week. “A lot of times last year, people pounded the ball inside against us. Strength is no longer a factor.”

On defense, that has been the case. On offense? Just take a peek at Irvine’s numbers in a 67-63 loss to Nevada on Thursday.

Forward Marek Ondera: five points, one of six from the field.

Center Greg Ethington: three points.

Center J.R. Christ: no points.

Forward Matt Okoro: no points.

The team’s leading rebounder? Small forward Ben Jones with six.

Things were so bad that Jones was used at power forward during the Anteaters’ second-half rally. He made four of six shots and scored 10 points.

Ten points, six rebounds? Douglass knows that if one of his centers would put up those numbers consistently, life would be a little easier for the Anteaters.

Instead, they got more of the same in an 81-46 loss at Utah State two nights later. Ondera was their top inside player with five points and five rebounds. Ethington, Christ and Okoro combined for five points.

Help isn’t on the way immediately. Forward Adam Stetson, out since Nov. 25 because of a collapsed lung, was cleared to participate in non-contact drills Wednesday and may be cleared for full workouts today. Still, the 6-foot-7 Stetson isn’t expected to be at full strength for at least two weeks.

ACTION FROM JACKSON

A bright spot--and there weren’t many--from the UC Irvine road trip was Sean Jackson.

He made five of 11 shots and finished with 18 points in a 67-63 loss to Nevada on Thursday.

Modest numbers, to be sure. But considering he entered the game shooting 31% from the field and averaging eight points, it was something to take out of an otherwise dismal evening.

Outside of a sharpshooting display against Oklahoma, when he sank six of seven three-pointers, Jackson has struggled.

“We changed some things in the way I approach the game,” said Jackson, a 6-foot-5 transfer from California. “I don’t want to say what they are because it was only one game. Let’s see how the next eight weeks go.”

He followed it up with a 13-point game in the Utah State debacle.

One thing that was noticeable was Jackson driving to the basket instead of shooting fall-away three-pointers. As a result, he got fouled and made seven of eight free throws.

He attempted only 19 free throws in the first 11 games.

Staff writers Chris Foster and Lon Eubanks contributed to this report.